We did invent boredom, a fruitful state.

17th May 2013

Post reblogged from A Pretty How Town with 266 notes

A DOZEN NOT SO RANDOM THOUGHTS ABOUT SACRIFICE

andythanfiction:

Reblogging to bump for the not-3am crowd and to answer a bunch of asks

andythanfiction:

1. This was the end of the first act of a story, not a self-contained story.  Seriously.  I’ve talked about it before, and they’ve done exactly what I said they needed to do in putting all the pieces on the board and having them claim themselves…but that also means we’re moving into act two.  Aka, the Act Where It All Goes To Shit.  So please, please, please, do not start setting yourself up emotionally that things are going to be resolved as soon as the show starts up again.  This was a season of opening doors, of starting things, not of finishing or answering them.  And that’s ok.  That’s a GOOD thing.  If they’d tried to wrap it up at the last minute, I’d be sobbing, because it would mean that they were trying to do the same damned thing Gamble did in playing one season at a time extensionary A arcs.  But they didn’t.  And they didn’t in a way that seriously confirms we have a fucking storyshape again.   

2. We have endgames.  All three main characters confirmed their endgames during the final trilogy.  Sam is going to be getting the white picket fence, the girl, and the life as a Man of Letters in support of Hunting (and maybe sometimes taking the odd case for good ol’ times sake) but no longer a road monkey.  Dean will continue to be a hunter, but with emphasis on the Saving People, not the Killing Things, and deliberately not on any kind of Great Crusade To Avenge squatdiddly, he will not do so alone, and though it will not be as he did it before as an extension of his brother and/or father, it will be with Sam’s blessing and his parents’ true legacy.  Castiel will continue as a warrior of God, Saving People and Smiting Things, with an emphasis on the Saving People, he will not do so alone, and though it will not be as he did it before as an extension of Heaven and/or his Father, it will be with their blessing.  Two of these line up so fucking tightly that I’m willing to hardcore call that the endgame WILL be this

regardless of whether they follow through with this.

3. We have All The Things…so we’re fucked. We have possession of BOTH the angel and demon tablets AND the Prophet to read them AND Charlie, who gives us Bobby-levels of resources and access in the human world.  Garth and Linda are question marks, and we have an inside vamp in Purgatory, and a witch, a nest of baby hunters, a fairie, and a werewolf out there who owe us favors.  PLUS the Batcave and all the shit in there AND Castiel, whom even depowered is one motherFUCKER of a warrior.  Now, given what I’ve already said about story shapes and three-act plays, given that the last time we were anywhere NEAR this strong was Season 5 (when we still weren’t even close), and we’re basically guaranteed that 9 is going to be some knock you back on your heels holy fuckbiscuits.  You don’t hang a gun you’re not going to need to fire.  And when the gun you’ve hung looks like this?  

You ain’t hunting these.

4. The angels.  It’s not necessarily going to be a game-changer on the world seeing the Supernatural.  They’ve already established that this is a universe where the public can forget that the brothers have been on the Most Wanted list a half dozen times, that Godstiel happened, and that there were huge clouds of demons coming in to major cities, among other things.  And I think they’ll assimilate about as well as the Leviathan did.  The bigger question, to me, given the nature of Angels, is whom now will they serve? 

5. Hanging chads.  Yes, I’m frustrated that they still didn’t answer about the Amelia thing, the Grand Canyon, the double casting, or any of those things.  But they’re still not plot holes…because TPTB have acknowledged them and said that we need to wait and see about it.  Which means that there’s shit there on the A plot, we’re just not to it yet.  They admitted to dropping Dean/Anna because it tanked as well as wanting to do stuff they never got around to, like going back to the Leviathan or Alpha Vamp, so I’m willing to believe them when they say that these things are on purpose and mean something.  And yeah, I do think they meant to get there before the end of the season, but then Charlie Bradbury wound up 6,000% more popular than anyone had expected in 8.11 and they had to give Felicia a serious acting test and make decisions FAST about whether they wanted to make her recurring for 9, and they basically lost a whole episode in a hugely key part of the arc.  Long run, they made it work, but shit had to get bumped.  So I’m expecting a lot of “OOOOOH” moments in early 9, unless they’ve decided to spread it out or move the reveal, which I won’t be able to call until I at least see 9.01.  

6. Down, not out.  Abaddon, Crowley, Metatron, and Naomi.  All four are down - Crowley partially humanized (but it never finished), Abaddon holy-molotoved (but smoked out at the last second) and Naomi shived in the head and probably fallen (but no wing scorches and if she was unconscious when the angels fell, that might affect things), Metatron revealed and holed up in Heaven with no allies.  They would not have given THAT much effort to building up Abaddon and Naomi only to ditch them that easily…especially not a team that has explicitly criticised that happening to Eve and Dick Roman, and not without introducing some Bigger Bad the way they did when they ganked Lilith and Ruby in favor of Lucifer.  They HAD to hit the pause button on all the major antagonists if they were going to allow Cas, Dean, and Sam the necessary moments of complete vulnerability to take such huge transitional steps, but now that those steps are taken, they’ll get exactly as much room as they NEED and not nearly as much as they’d LIKE before at least one of the big bads resurfaces.  And by leaving them all in a state of pause that is also a state of question mark and all in antagonism with each other, that gives the widest possible combination of variables for their re-emergence.  

7. Carver loses a cookie.  The trans*/drag joke was absolutely unacceptable.  There was no reason for it, there was no justification for it, it was a cheap laugh at the expense of already marginalized people, it played to things that SPN usually roundly rejects, and Carver should be ashamed of himself. Yes, it was hurtful and people have a right to be hurt, but no, it doesn’t make him a monster or mean he hates trans* people or that the show is evil and wants all queers to die in fires. It means he took a cheap shot for a cheap laugh in a place that the culture makes it easy for a cishet dude to not even think about when he really should, and I’m honestly planning to write him from the perspective of “you’re better than that and should apologize.”    

8. And wins one back that’s at least as big. Weirdly, for all that I absolutely hold by everything above?  The stuff that came after with Cupid had more meaning to me because of it.  Not because of the line itself - that was still an inexcusible throw-away that did nothing to enhance what came after - but because it suggested strongly that Carver was being genuine in what he was trying to say with the gay couple.  This isn’t someone savvily trying to “cater to the LGBT demographic.”  This is someone who genuinely thinks that Love is Love and Genitals Don’t Matter and wants to Say Things About That Because Important, but is still outside the queer loop enough to not realize that “chix with dix” jokes are Not Funny (though ignorant stupid is so much easier to fix than hateful stupid). Which also means that there’s way, way, way less likelihood that Destiel is queerbaiting.  And yes, I also love how they totally subverted the stereotype of what Gay Should Look Like, how they had Dean react in a way that suggested he was more “well I’ll be damned, that’s my bad for not seeing it as a possibility” than “OMG GAY WTF?”, and for the tidy trick of in retrospect having what seemed like a Socially Awkward Cas Is Socially Awkward gag turn out to actually be another example of Cas being surprisingly perceptive…and having no problem either recognizing or being seen as queer.

9. The brothers…oh, Jesus, the brothers.  They DID close the gates of Hell.  Not the trivial ones that let demons in or out.  Demons they can handle…six before breakfast on a bad day.  The one they closed last night was the hellgate which opened in that nursery in Lawrence 30 years ago.  Azazel started the pattern where Sammy was the Tainted Prince. Everything - Stanford, the Psychic Children, the Crossroads Deal, Ruby, Lucifer, ALL of it - was spiraled off of that.  Last night closed the spiral.  Dean finished the process of purging himself of John - the original Righteous Man and Broken Caregiver he had been crafted to replicate - that he had begun in Purgatory, abnegating the last and deepest of John’s influence by recognizing that he had BECOME the bad father who could never be pleased and renouncing that and seeking forgiveness.  Sam finished the process of cleansing himself with a complete confession without justifications and a willingness to both sacrifice himself and stand up for himself in his honesty with Dean.  They have debrided the festering wounds in their relationship down to the healthy tissue and in finally breaking their long-established patterns and truly forgiving both themselves and each other - which has NEVER happened before - they have completed their trials.  Azazel, Alastair, Ruby, Lilith, Crowley, Lucifer…they hold no power over the Winchesters any more.  In an Akedah act rather than a Martyrdom, the Word of the Prophet remained true; Sam gave himself to all three trials and closed hell.  

10. Cas chose Heaven, and that’s awesome for Destiel.  One of the best pieces of advice that I should have listened to was to never get involved with someone who will cheat on their current partner to be with you.  If they can do it to them - rather than just break up with them if they’re so unhappy or try to fix it if they’re not - then they can and will likely as not some day do it to you.  Heaven has been Cas’ family for hundreds of millions of years.  If he’s willing to walk out on them after less than four years of everything going to shit…scaled to Cas’ lifespan against a human’s, that’s barely a few minutes at most.  Maybe a few hours if you go back 20-200K years or so to Lucifer.  It was one thing when he was choosing stopping the apocalypse and that meant choosing the Winchesters.  That was still humanity first…his actual prime directive, as even Naomi finally admitted.  But this season, even though it would have been so much easier, even though he was in love with someone else, he didn’t “cheat.”  He chose to “go to therapy” and see if the relationship could be saved.  That blew up in his face to say the least, but it also resulted in Heaven agreeing that it’s ok that he’s different and they’re willing to let him be that.  (Not to mention that extradiegetically, they can finally give Cas some screen time now)

11.  …and Dean recognized that.  God, it hurt him, but there was something completely new in that bar scene between them, and he was mourning it maturely and in a genuine “if you love something, let it go” way rather than self-flagellation or shoving it away and spitting on it.  Dean has come far enough in himself that he no longer saw of course you’re leaving, I’m not good enough for you and everyone leaves.  He saw of course you’re leaving,  because this is your duty in a way that doesn’t exclude loving me or having a damned thing to do with that, it overrides it.  When the chips are down, that we’re both soldiers comes first - hell, it’s half of why I love you and why we get each other - and I finally get that this sucks for both of us, but I guess it never could have worked…not because I’m not worth it or you’re not worth it or someone doesn’t love enough, but because you’re kind of extremely not my species and we’re both already married.  Me to Sammy and Hunting, you to Heaven.  (And I would also point out, you can’t start a conversation about the end of a thing without defacto acknowledging that there is, in fact, a thing)

12. And we’re in a whole new ballgame.  Because now Heaven no longer has that disastrous toxic fuckthing with Cas…but has opened a door to something that might work and right now needs him.  Sam no longer has that disastrous toxic fuckthing with Dean…but has opened a door to something that might work and right now needs him.  And now Cas and Dean are equals…in more than being the same species, though they’re that, too, and just the capacity to feel different things and being in full bodily ownership might do a lot.  Now they are each their own person and have taken ownership of their own identity and accepted what they are, that they do not have to and should not throw that away In The Name Of Love, and that you don’t prove love by hurting yourself in the other person’s name or having to cut off everyone else that matters to you.  They’ve done everything I said they needed to do to have a healthy relationship including the back and forth hurty dance.  And they’re about ten episodes away from a point where they have to pull out their biggest possible guns to earn the last renewal…which I think will be Destiel.  

But new ballgame or not, I’ve been batting a good average so far.

Tagged: helloooo metaaaaaaa!

Source: andythanfiction